9 8 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



[vol. 50 



Carolina made the best showing of all of them, fixing the value of 

 the pound at $4,284 and that of the shilling at 2 if cents. Let it be 

 borne in mind that all of those legislative acts referred to American 

 bills of credit and that none of them was aimed at English money 

 as such, although they doubtless had an indirectly depressing effect 

 upon the current value of that money which then remained in the 

 United States. 



With the establishment of the United States mint, the copper 

 cent became comparatively plentiful, but the issue of other coins 

 was for many years far less than the country needed. Besides this, 

 the withdrawal of the bills of credit from circulation as money pro- 

 duced a financial condition which at that time would have been 



State of NEW-JERSEY. 

 [No. //?&?/ J O"* Shilling and 6d. 



THIS Bill (hall pafs current for One Shilling and Six- 

 pence, agreeably to an Act of the Legiflature of this 

 State, patted the ninth Day of Ja- 

 nuary, One Thoufand Seven Hun- 

 dred and Eighty one. 



Fig. 26. — New Jersey bill of credit for one shilling and sixpence. 



disastrous had not large quantities of Spanish coins already been 

 distributed throughout the country and in common use as currency. 

 The bulk of that Spanish coinage was in quarter pesos, reals, and 

 medios, the peso not having been very often seen in circulation; 

 and the half peso was less common than were the smaller coins. 

 Those Spanish silver coins remained in common use as currency 

 nearly up to the beginning of the civil war. 



It is a curious fact that, although the Spanish supply then con- 

 stituted the principal part of our current coins, Spanish names for 

 those coins were practically discarded by the people of the United 

 States. The national term "dollar" was applied to the peso, and 

 English or special terms were colloquially applied to its subdivisions. 



